Graphic Design

I saw a few photos of Trump in the Oval Office with his team recently (example) and got an itch to spend 2 hours this evening cleaning it up and messing around with it (just for fun). I took the liberty of adding Gavin and Milo in one iteration … just because. Note – I didn’t have the time/patience to get all the merged “faces” perfect so some of them look a bit off … but I like the final product so that’s all that matters :).

Merged/Cleaned up

Combination of few photos for best face/positioning but keeping original scene as is

A New Southpark Holly Animation!

I usually make Holly some kind of separate Christmas card instead of the illustrated one I send out to my (short) list of friends … mainly because I don’t like her getting the same thing everyone else does. Anyhow – I normally don’t have a ton of time to make something big for this but this year I started early (month or two ago) and spent (a lot of) time here and there to create not only a card but a new “Southpark Holly” animation to go along with it. At a running time of over 3:00 minutes it’s the longest Southpark Holly animation I’ve done – but it still just feels like a teaser trailer for a movie I wish I had the time to do. Like in the past I made the animation using “Adobe Flash” (now called “Adobe Animate”). But since “Flash” is mostly dead for most people’s phones, tablets and web browsers I exported it to an HD video. Here it is … enjoy! Tip: Make sure to go fullscreen, click the HD button and turn up your sound before starting it!

Apparently I get #Trump graphic ideas often – here’s another one. I originally just wanted to put Trump alongside a couple old paintings of Washington and Lincoln but in the end I thought I’d also compare some of the negative things people said about each of them.

Background

This may be a weird one but this is another idea that popped into my head that I had to just get out of my system. As usual I went a tad overboard but I guess that’s what I do.

First of all, I am well aware that the opinion of a celebrity doesn’t matter ANY more than the average citizen’s as we all have the same capacity to discern (or ignore) the facts in front of us. However, since celebrities are given so much media attention, their opinions do have some influence on the public. So for this reason, and my own political and nerdy curiousity I’ve put together a graphical record of who is on which side of the upcoming, historic vote for the next president of the U.S. But again … while I would love to hear debates between Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood or Tony Bennett and James Woods on why they support different candidates this election, the bottom line is that their celebrity status doesn’t make their presidential endorsements any more significant than mine or any other American citizen’s.

Before stating the obvious that the Trump-supporting group is visibly smaller that the Hillary-supporting group, keep in mind that in the current political and cultural climate in America it is FAR easier and more “culturally-acceptable” to support Hillary (because you know “RACISTS! SEXIST!” yadda yadda). Sadly what’s worse, showing support for Trump can have a very negative impact on a celebrity’s career (example). Given these facts, each person on the Trump side here has (IMHO) 10 times the guts of anyone supporting Hillary and they have my sincere thanks and respect.

On the topic of support numbers I think the following two quotes are quite fitting:

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”– Mark Twain

“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”– Samuel Adams

Graphics

Final Thoughts

Even though I know Hollywood skews to the left I have to admit it is painful to see some of my favorite actors being so aggresively outspoken on this election given the fact that this isn’t “just another left vs right election” and that the stakes are so high. It’s going to take some time for me to watch any of them in a movie anytime soon – especially after watching stuff like this ridiculous celebrity-stuffed anti-Trump ad:

Fortunately, some brilliant folks made a rebuttal video that at least helped me take the edge off a bit after watching the above:

In any case … that’s all for now. I just wanted to create a visual document showing who was on which side of the election … for whichever way it goes.

Few disclaimers on graphics:

Both lists here are likely far from complete. I’m sure there are plenty of musicians, actors and other celebrities not represented here who consider themselves on one side or the other. These lists, however, are just pulled from links like this that outline celebrities who have been outspoken about their political leaning this election.

To keep the list more “celebrity” focused I left out people from news organization, nightly “talk shows” and the world of politics.

If anyone notices any major names missing, or if anyone changes sides between now and the election let me know and maybe I’ll update the graphics. But being ~3 weeks out now I don’t think much of that will happen.

This one may seem a bit out of left field but a week or so ago I got an itch to put up a wall of people I consider heroes in my time along with links to their various social network links, podcasts, videos etc. I may or may not expand the list in the future as time permits but I’m going ahead and publishing it now with the first 9 people otherwise I would never release it. I’m sure none of the people on this list will ever know about this site and honestly no one else besides me may even know the page exists … but that’s enough for me. The site should generally work ok on PC, tablet or phone but there may be quirks I have to iron out over time.

Feel free to chime in if you have suggestions on people I might add, violent reactions you have to anyone on this current list etc. Here’s the link:

Sample Screenshot

Thoughts on Trump

Why would a billionaire take an extended leave from his very comfortable life and empire of successful businesses to run for the US presidency? Ego? Rich man’s guilt? Some other conspiracy? And which of these or other reasons would make it remotely worth his while to go from being a world-renown businessman and celebrity to being thrashed in the news every other week being called idiot, a bigot, a joke … even a Hitler? Continue reading →

A few days ago I read the announcment that a new Metal Gear Solid game is in development. Naturally I immediately did a Google images search to change my desktop’s wallpaper image. Since there weren’t any great wallpapers available at the time I booted up Photoshop and whipped up a temporary one myself (using the screenshot from the game below). It’s nothing special but feel free to grab if you’re a MGS fan and a desktop wallpaper nerd like me!

(For any lurking lawyers/etc… this is a super unnofficial, unlicensed, unapproval fan-based piece of artwork. All rights to Konami, Kojima Productions, etc!)